Challenged Book 'Beloved' to Undergo Review Today

Toni Morrison's award-winning Beloved will face a review today to determine whether it belongs in the Plymouth-Canton Educational Park's AP English courses.

Park parents about the book's sexual, thematic and violent content. It was the second such book to be challenged in the course; Graham Swift's in December by superintendent Jeremy Hughes.

The removal has prompted lively debate — — removing the book. About 100 parents and students packed a Tuesday school board meeting to speak on the issue.

The review will take place at 5 p.m. today at the , 454 S. Harvey St. in Plymouth.

According to Hughes, a panel was assembled in accordance with administrative guidelines for handling controversial materials.

The panel, Hughes said, was expanded beyond the minimum amount of people cited in administrative guidelines to include additional parents and instructors in addition to a college instructor, because the class in question is a college-level course, and additional parents and instructors.

"It was based on people with whom we have worked," Hughes said. He said two members were asked to leave the committee for having strong opinions regarding the topic.

While most reviews for controversial materials are not made public, Hughes said because of the emotions involved — and the high profile for the issue — today's hearing will be public.

On the subject of vetting new books, Hughes said the Board of Education ultimately approves the material, but it begins with the Park Council, a curriculum group that includes 13 administrators. Instructional materials first are presented to that group, he said. If approved, the recommendation goes to the director of secondary education, or elemetnary education, depending on the level of material. At that point, Hughes said, the director establishes a vetting process before making a recommendation to the superintendent, then to the school board for approval.

As for the two challenged books, Hughes said he could find no evidence of vetting before being introduced to the classroom.

"We could find no record of the books going through that process," he said. "I'm not blaming teachers for that."

Maloney said he wasn't interested in talking about blame, chalking it up as a failure of process.

"The process, to the best of my knowledge, was not used," Hughes said.

Maloney said he wanted ensure a process was in place so in the future, the district does not encounter similar problems.

"It’s created a great divide in our community right now and that’s not a good thing," Maloney said.

Editor's note: The time of the meeting has been corrected to show that it begins at 5 p.m., not 4 p.m.